The days into weeks
It is Monday, 28 November 2022.
Fresh off Thanksgiving break, it's back to work. In a few days, the calendar will turn to December, and it'll be the last month of the year. I can wax poetic about how the year has flown by and we're already at the end of 2022, but this isn't about that, per se. Instead, I stare at the calendar, hurriedly awaiting the last week of the year. As of this Monday, 28 November, there is exactly four weeks until 26 December.
After coming off a four-day break, I'm already looking ahead to the next extended break from work. If you know absolutely nothing else, it might sound like I detest my work to be looking toward the next break already. That's far from the truth. I very much enjoy where I work; my co-workers are great; I like what I do! I'm not saying any of this to attempt to appease anyone or to convince myself of this. I genuinely like what I do. In other words, it's not that I dread my work and desperately need that next extended break to get here.
That said, I would much prefer being on break than performing my paid work. Yes, I need (and very much like) the paychecks my company hands out to me every couple weeks, but the occasional break is always much needed.
So on this Monday, I'm plotting the four week it'll take me to get through work and land on the week-long, holiday shutdown the company offers its employees. Mind you, I don't have any actual plans during the break. I'm not going on any fantastical trip-around-the-world. No, I'm very likely going to spend the week not doing much of anything--which, depending on who you are, can very much be something to look forward to.
Yet, as I'm actively aware of the time it'll take for me to reach that last week, I'm also very cognizant that once it arrives, that week will go by so much faster than I would want. After all, days become weeks when it comes to a workday and work-week, so the days will very quickly become a week for that week-long break.
I start a vacation, dreading that last day of the vacation, knowing that I have to return to life afterward. And yes, I say this as if I live a dreadful life, when that's far from the truth. My life, for all it is, is very much average and not very exciting. It is very much not dreadful.
But I know all this speaks to issues where I'm constantly thinking ahead and seeing what's good or bad that's ahead instead of living in the present, good or bad. If I'm already dreading the end of a vacation at the very beginning, then man, sadly, I've not even begun to enjoy said vacation. Maybe the mere enjoyment of it is just the anticipation leading up to it, because I'm just constantly living ahead of myself.
Really, I think all I'm really getting at is an oft-repeated phrase I say that time only moves in one direction. And whether I may or may not be living in the present, reminiscing about the days gone, or just eying the tomorrow that's not yet here, we're nevertheless just marching toward that tomorrow, regardless of whether it arrives or not.
Because as I'm writing this, it's Monday, 26 December 2022. What I had been wanting is here. And that dread of knowing this week will just breeze by before I know it is ever present. I'll blink, and it'll be 2023 and I'll be back at work. But the reality of my work then won't be as dreadful as I think it will be. But then maybe the reality of my break this current week also won't be as whatever positive word as I think it will be.
If I close my eyes just a tad bit longer, it'll be the last week of December 2023. And all the feelings I've written about here will apply again, but it's now a year from this very moment.
The days become weeks. The weeks become months. And all those months add up to years.
Fresh off Thanksgiving break, it's back to work. In a few days, the calendar will turn to December, and it'll be the last month of the year. I can wax poetic about how the year has flown by and we're already at the end of 2022, but this isn't about that, per se. Instead, I stare at the calendar, hurriedly awaiting the last week of the year. As of this Monday, 28 November, there is exactly four weeks until 26 December.
After coming off a four-day break, I'm already looking ahead to the next extended break from work. If you know absolutely nothing else, it might sound like I detest my work to be looking toward the next break already. That's far from the truth. I very much enjoy where I work; my co-workers are great; I like what I do! I'm not saying any of this to attempt to appease anyone or to convince myself of this. I genuinely like what I do. In other words, it's not that I dread my work and desperately need that next extended break to get here.
That said, I would much prefer being on break than performing my paid work. Yes, I need (and very much like) the paychecks my company hands out to me every couple weeks, but the occasional break is always much needed.
So on this Monday, I'm plotting the four week it'll take me to get through work and land on the week-long, holiday shutdown the company offers its employees. Mind you, I don't have any actual plans during the break. I'm not going on any fantastical trip-around-the-world. No, I'm very likely going to spend the week not doing much of anything--which, depending on who you are, can very much be something to look forward to.
Yet, as I'm actively aware of the time it'll take for me to reach that last week, I'm also very cognizant that once it arrives, that week will go by so much faster than I would want. After all, days become weeks when it comes to a workday and work-week, so the days will very quickly become a week for that week-long break.
I start a vacation, dreading that last day of the vacation, knowing that I have to return to life afterward. And yes, I say this as if I live a dreadful life, when that's far from the truth. My life, for all it is, is very much average and not very exciting. It is very much not dreadful.
But I know all this speaks to issues where I'm constantly thinking ahead and seeing what's good or bad that's ahead instead of living in the present, good or bad. If I'm already dreading the end of a vacation at the very beginning, then man, sadly, I've not even begun to enjoy said vacation. Maybe the mere enjoyment of it is just the anticipation leading up to it, because I'm just constantly living ahead of myself.
Really, I think all I'm really getting at is an oft-repeated phrase I say that time only moves in one direction. And whether I may or may not be living in the present, reminiscing about the days gone, or just eying the tomorrow that's not yet here, we're nevertheless just marching toward that tomorrow, regardless of whether it arrives or not.
Because as I'm writing this, it's Monday, 26 December 2022. What I had been wanting is here. And that dread of knowing this week will just breeze by before I know it is ever present. I'll blink, and it'll be 2023 and I'll be back at work. But the reality of my work then won't be as dreadful as I think it will be. But then maybe the reality of my break this current week also won't be as whatever positive word as I think it will be.
If I close my eyes just a tad bit longer, it'll be the last week of December 2023. And all the feelings I've written about here will apply again, but it's now a year from this very moment.
The days become weeks. The weeks become months. And all those months add up to years.